At first it looked like a wardrobe malfunction. At the glossiest parties and biggest premieres of the Cannes Film Festival, actresses appeared to have forgotten how to find a suitable bra. But this was no mistake – and it turns out the most fashionable accessory of the season has been lurking under your shirt all this time. We have seen it everywhere from the crystal layered dress that Marilyn Monroe first wore and Kim Kardashian borrowed at last year’s Met Gala to the major fashion statement that was Florence Pugh’s sheer, voluminous free-the-nipple Valentino ballgown in hot pink. Not that the naked trend shows any sign of dying out, as Irina Shayk’s outfit at the Cannes film festival proved.

Others were concerned about the potential legal ramifications of creators exposing themselves to minors on the app, given TikTok’s comparatively young user base. First up, Scarlett Johansson who wore a custom candyfloss-coloured Prada gown to the premiere of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, the top of which created the effect of a standard M&S white bra poking out over a strapless dress. On the rest of us, it might look like we had wandered outside halfway through a fitting, but on Johansson it made a simple outfit feel modern and fresh. The videos include ones in which people flash the camera from a distance, partly obscured by a door, or peek a nipple around a corner. Some are close-up shots of someone's face, with an object in the foreground on the edge of the screen that appears to be their nipple. Others show nudity in the reflection of faucets or mirrors.And that’s just the beginning of this sort of content on TikTok. Over the last week and a half, TikTok users have been bombarded with videos in which users expose their breasts using a variety of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it techniques that manage to get around the platform’s content moderation systems. It’s all part of a trend called the Foopah challenge, named after the now-suspended account that initiated the flashing videos.

In addition to his concerns about the spread of explicit content to people who might not choose to consume it, McLoughlin is worried about the trend’s long-term ramifications. “Other content creators, who don’t break the rules, might find themselves subject to even harsher systems which target them directly,” he said. “I can certainly imagine those who talk about breastfeeding to be targeted, for example.” Are researches how social media platforms take an overly draconian approach to bodies and how content moderation guidelines are often weaponized by those who dislike women or seek to gain power over them. “One of the reasons why this might be happening, and one of the reasons why this weird format has started trending, is that moderation of bodies on social media is notoriously puritanical,” she said.And besides, Andrews said, there’s no way of knowing for sure that the people in the videos are actually flashing. “Prove it,” she said. Some participating in the Foopah trend are quite clearly using their elbow or thumb in place of a breast or nipple appearing around the door. (Andrews copped to actually getting naked. “Yes, they are real,” she said, when asked if her videos showed her flashing her breasts.)